It is a common misconception that the French Revolution was an uprising of the peasants against the aristocrats. In actuality, the French Revolution was a revolt started by the middle-class and finished by the peasants. In the eighteenth century trade and commerce was growing in France. This economic change brought a rise to the Bourgeoisie or middle-class. Although many members of the middle-class had a larger income than members of the nobility, the taxes they were required to pay, prevented them from moving up in society.

Throughout time and empires, problems with the economy have ruined civilizations, and eighteenth century France was no different. Preceding the revolution France had taken active roles in many wars. These wars included the Wars of Louis XIV, Seven Years War, and the

One more burden that added to the troubles of the third estate was the three masters that added many more costs to daily life. The first master was the landlord. Along with paying money and grain to maintain land, a member of the third estate had to pay to use the wine press. Also, the third estate had to pay for bread (ironically, they were paying for the bread that was made with their own grain). The second master was the Church. The Church was another burden to the third estate because the Roman Catholic Church collected the Tithe. Finally, the third master of the peasants was the king, who collected all taxes except the Tithe.

Tension towards the Roman Catholic Church and the French judicial system were already mounting but the Calas Affair set off a major movement against these institutions. The Calas affair took place in Toulouse, France in the early 1760s. Jean Calas was a French Calvinist and a prominent merchant. In 1761 one of his four sons, Marc-Antoine hung himself inside one of his father's warehouses. Immediately it was suggested that Jean Calas was guilty of murdering his own son to prevent him from converting to Christianity. On March ninth, 1762, by a vote of eight to five, Jon Calas was wrongly sentenced to torture. He was brutally tortured for day, and eventually broken at the wheel (when one is tied up and every bone in one's body is broken with a steel bar) and burnt. After his brutal death, his family went to Voltaire to argue their case. Voltaire proved that Jean Calas was innocent of the crime he was executed for, and the parliament of Toulouse immediately pronounced Calas innocent. This enraged many people, and led people to speak out against the church and government.

The social system in France was divided into what was called Estates. The first estate was the Roman Catholic Church, the second estate was the aristocracy, and the third estate consisted of both the peasantry and the bourgeoisie (middle-class). Another characteristic of French society was the feudal system. In this system a feudal lord (land lord) would own a large plot of land where peasants would farm and live. These feudal lords, who were members of the second estate, were paid in harvest as well as in currency. This feudal system was also called the manorial system. This system did not the peasantry happy, because their well being depended on their harvest, which caused problems when the crop was bad. For example, if there were a famine on the grain harvest, the bread prices would rise. This expressed the economic idea of supply and

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Approximate Word count = 1722
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)